Flames Game Day: Senators Battered But Still Hard To Beat

The Calgary Flames (25-18-10) are in the nation's capital to take on the Ottawa Senators (24-24-3). 

It's another one of those games where you wonder if they'll dominate a team that is battered and bruised and well below them in the standings, or if the Flames will have another of those lulls, as if they're expecting to win without putting in the effort. 

We'll find out at 5:30 p.m. MT (Sportsnet). 

The Senators lost 6-3 to the Flames' provincial rival Edmonton Oilers on Saturday and saw goalie Anton Forsberg tearing the MCL in both knees late in the third period. Cam Talbot is also on the shelf with a suspected groin injury and won't get to face his former Calgary Flames. 

Mads Søgaard will get the start for the Sens.

"They're going to play hard for the kid," Sens head coach D.J. Smith said on Monday. "Everyone knows what it's like to be a young guy trying to cut your teeth in the NHL. We're going to play responsible around him."

Speaking of young guys trying to cut their teeth in the NHL, Jakob Pelletier sparked a big Flames win on Saturday with his first goal in the league, cutting into a 2-1 deficit that became a 7-2 Calgary Flames victory over the Buffalo Sabres. That brought their road trip record to 1-1-1 over the first three of four games. It's 2-1-1 if you include the one-off in Seattle just before the bye week and all-star break.

"It's a five-game trip for us and you want to finish strong," Calgary Flames head coach Darryl Sutter said on Monday. "You always want to zero-in on what you're trying to accomplish. When you're on long trips, you always want to try and get more points than games played. 

"We have a lot of guys that haven't been home for… pushing into the third week here. Two-and-a-half weeks. We won't play a home game for three weeks, so there's lots more involved in it. You want to finish strong and have a good effort tonight."

Calgary Flames projected lineup

Forwards:

Dillon Dube – Elias Lindholm – Tyler Toffoli

Jakob Pelletier – Nazem Kadri – Jonathan Huberdeau

Andrew Mangiapane – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman

Milan Lucic – Trevor Lewis – Brett Ritchie

Defence:

Noah Hanifin – Chris Tanev

Nikita Zadorov – MacKenzie Weegar

Dennis Gilbert – Michael Stone

Goaltender:

Jacob Markstrom